Can morality exist without a God?

Question

If God had never "Revealed" himself to man, would a mother not know how to love her child?

Answer 1

yes it already exists without a god dont you see

Answer 2

I think the maternal instinct is part of the natural process, sure.

And yet we see a lot of examples in our culture of mothers who abandon their kids, detach, get involved in addictive behavior, abuse their family, and the like.

Obviously the genetic code is not enough to always result in "loving" behavior, or is tainted in some way so that what is "ideal" doesn't actually happen nearly as often as it should.

We also get many mothers who "over-mother" -- who for whatever reasons or disappointment in marriage/life look for emotional affirmation from their child that the kid should not have to provide and thus end up damaging his/her psyche.

The behavior feels "natural" to the mother and "looks good" from the outside, but ultimately it is selfish behavior even if it feels instinctive.

(It's bad enough that the running joke in the '90's was that everyone's family was "dysfunctional" in some way, so what's the point of using the term anymore?)

The thing is that we have a free will to choose to go against our programming, feelings, and/or sensibilities. At any time, we can choose to do the opposite of what we plan to do, and for no good reason.

This area where we make choices apart from our inclinations and natural-yet-corruptable "programming" is where morality comes into play, and it's where our relationships usually break down.

Many times, the best thing to do for oneself and others is not the thing that feels most "natural" or best in the short-term. Spirituality and religion explores what the best choices SHOULD be, for people to be healthy and whole.

Answer 3

Personally I don't see the correlation between motherly instincts(or lack thereof) and God revealing Himself to man. But to attempt to answer your question, I don't believe morality could exist without a Divine law governing it. Without law, there is chaos in secular life, so it only stands to reason that without morality, then spiritual and secular society denegrates into everything there is negative about mankind coming to the surface and raging out of control in the form of violence and irreverence.

Answer 4

Yes, a mother knows how to love her child and god doesn't exist and never has.

Answer 5

Of course. There are other means of determining morality other than religion. Society at large without religion influences morality. Even without the christian deity or any other for that matter the majority of people still know and believe it is wrong to kill; religion merely reinforces what is already there.

Answer 6

Then what of the mother that has a crystal meth lab in her own kitchen and the children see what she does on a daily basis? So then what would be the question if the mother was abusive and neglected her children's needs, if you compare the love of a mother to the existence of God?

Answer 7

Of course not, religion thinks that morality was founded by them but it wanst. The morality written in the bible was a direct hit at the Romans at the time as they ran around having orgies and getting drunk all teh time, religion (or the start of Christanity) didnt like it as masses could not be controlled.

Answer 8

How silly. Of course. God doesn't give us morality, He just reinforces and enforces. In the case of CHristianity, out of fear. Religion is a way of controling people so that they function within the rules of society, but there are other ways too, such as legal systems.

Answer 9

Yes, morality has existed since long before religion.

Answer 10

The bible is an extremely poor source for teaching or learning "morals."

Morals are subjective and are developed as a means of survival. They are neither inspired by, nor created by supernatural entities.

Answer 11

who defines what is moral in this scenario. God set the standard